Students from The Grove Primary School meet and ask questions of their Local Member of Parliament!
Last week Head Teacher Bernadette Atkinson was generous enough to invite me to be quizzed by students from The Grove Primary School about a number of issues as part of UK Parliament Week. It was wonderful to speak with some of my youngest constituents and get an idea about the issues that really matter to them, with both local and national issues cropping up.
It wasn’t all easy going. I had to field various creative questions that you wouldn’t expect on the green benches in the House of Commons. A particularly insightful question about the functioning of Parliament really got me thinking!
UK Parliament week gives young students a great opportunity to engage with their local representative. I still remember my local MP visiting me at school when I was a child so I hopefully this memory will stay with them. Helping connect children to democracy and forge a long-lasting engagement with Parliament is one of my most important duties as your local MP.
I must say that the library bus and outside learning are great at The Grove and the school has a real community feel too with some very long serving members of staff who clearly love the place and the pupils. It was a pleasure to meet Bernadette too - we’ve spoken several times but not met in person before!